Instead of buying and running their own machines, organizations rent what they need from a provider and pay for it as they use it or by subscription. Services are often grouped as infrastructure, platform and software. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are the largest providers.
The benefits are speed, flexibility and lower upfront cost. A team can start a server in minutes, scale up for a busy period and scale down afterward. Cloud demand is also the main reason for the heavy capital spending on data centers, and many AI products depend on it.
The trade-offs include ongoing costs that can grow quickly, reliance on one provider, and shared responsibility for security. The provider protects the platform, but customers must configure their own access, data and settings correctly, and mistakes there cause many breaches.
Monitor spending, use strong access controls and design systems so that you can move if you need to.